What is my work about?
I write performance art scores (do-it-yourself instructions for live art projects) designed to help black folks from different backgrounds explore their aesthetic beliefs while processing important, but often overlooked sociological shifts affecting their worlds. My goal is to help individual black Americans take control of their role in the evolution of black American culture. I hope black audiences from a wide range of backgrounds will use them to start conversations with friends, family, & community so we can work together to build habits that shape a future we want to live in.
While these projects are written first and foremost for black audiences, they are useful for anyone looking to learn more about black history and popular culture. By engaging black folks from different backgrounds in conversations about their definitions of beauty and the changes taking place in our worlds, I aim to help people of all backgrounds see just how diverse and beautiful black folks’ stories are.
Artist Statement
I am an artist who writes performance art scores or as I like to call them” recipes to create poetic moments.” Sometimes I carry out these recipes. Sometimes I do not. Sometimes I am in my performances and sometimes I am not. But either way, I compose them, like John Coltrane composed music. Either way, I choreograph them, like Alvin Ailey choreographed dances.
Like Coltrane and Ailey, I try to make these recipes flexible enough to stand the test of time. I try to make them structured enough to convey a particular feeling or to ask a particular question. I try to make these recipes in a way that highlights the unique beauty of each person who acts them out. I try to make them gather information, about black folks about black women in particular, about what we think is beautiful about each other, and also about the changes that are taking place in our worlds. I try to make them engaging so that others will want to experience these moments and learn to see in us what we already see in each other. I try to make them joyful. I am opposed to making black folks especially black womenfrown.
I am committed to reaching audiences who do not normally feel comfortable in museums or galleries. To this end, I endeavor to do the following: to speak plain English, so that I can be understood; to use first hand sources, so that each can decide what s/he believes for her/himself. I believe in the power of performance art, because performance is action. Actions are the result of philosophies.
I believe actions embody the philosophies they are the result of. I believe you can learn a philosophy by engaging in an action. I believe actions can become habits. I believe habits can become customs. And I believe customs can perpetuate a philosophy through space and time.
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The scores typically start as my own personal performances. If I find they resonate with my target audience, then I transcribe the actions into a written score. Next, I ask other people to perform the score. I then edit the written score based on their feedback. Due to the nature of the work, I prefer to present viewers with multiple interpretations of each score. I do this so viewers are clear they should remix the scores to reflect their personal histories and aesthetics as opposed to copying my interpretations of the scores.
At present, I am primarily focused on two bodies of work: “The Obama Skirt Project” and “SAY IT LOUD!: Performance Art Scores for the Young, Gifted, and Fabulous.” The first is a 3 phase exploration of the USA’s election of its first black president from a Pan African perspective. The second is a continually evolving series of scores designed to meet the needs of black youth whose schools have lost visual arts funding. The scores in this second series use bodies, actions, and everyday objects to help black youth explore basic art principles, as well as to process sociological issues that commonly affect black youth on their path to adulthood.
“The Obama Skirt Project” consists of 3 phases. Phase 1 is titled “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand.” This 365 day performance consisted of me collaborating with local African immigrant tailors to create garments out of Obama fabrics I had collected from Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Tanzania, and South Africa (all countries that have already elected black heads of states and where these elections are often celebrated with commemorative fabrics). I then wore the resulting garments everyday for one year in my predominantly black neighborhood BedStuy (Brooklyn, NY) as a way of processing the experience of having a first black president, as well as considering its meaning on a global, PanAfrican historical timeline. Rather than take a photo a day, I decided to write a series of short scores which document key thoughts or emotions I experienced during the year. This series of 12 short scores is a work in progress. Together, the scores will explore the experience of having a first black president from the perspective of a black American woman whose family has been in the US since slavery. How has having a black president changed the way I see the world and myself in it? How has it changed the world around me? The series is unique in that it focuses on aspects of the experience which I believe will have important long term sociological repercussions for black Americans, but which I do not see being documented elsewhere.
Phase 2 of the “Obama Skirt Project” is currently referred to as “The Story Skirters.” This is a doityourself / user friendly remix of “From Here I Saw What Happened…” designed in response to other AfroAmerican women’s requests that I create a version of the score they could use to tell their stories. It is documented via skirts which stay in the skirters families, and photo portraits which are exhibited publicly. This phase has had several iterations. In the most recent one, I have been working with Sierra Leonian American photographer Delphine Fawundu to document a group of Story Skirters who are concentrated in small region of BedStuy. By concentrating the Skirters in a small geographic area, I aim to introduce residents to the fabrics in a way that is similar to how they would experience them in an African city i. e. coming across them worn on the street, in their neighbors’ homes, etc.
Phase 3 of the “Obama Skirt Project” is untitled as yet. It will consist of sending new Obama fabrics designed by Afro American women (women whose families have been in the US since slavery) to the African countries the original Obama fabrics were produced in, so as to create a nonverbal conversation via the fabrics.
The second body of work, “SAY IT LOUD!: Performance Art Scores for the Young, Gifted, and Fabulous” grew out of my time as a teaching artist. During this time, I worked for 5 years in community centers for low income youth run by the New York City Housing Authority. They were some of my brightest, most creative students and I was continually dismayed by the wide range of issues I saw affecting them (domestic violence, drug related violence, lack of access to healthy food, etc.). I also saw their parents were often too overwhelmed from working multiple jobs to think critically about how to help their children derive the right life lessons from many of these experiences. At the same time, my mother who is a professor at a local community college would tell me how her students who were more or less the adult versions of my studentshad overcome these same obstacles and steered their lives in a positive direction. I began composing the “SAY IT LOUD!” scores based on the belief that if I equipped my students, their parents, and their teachers with tools to process these issues, my students would be better able to determine on their own how to use their creative talents to move past the obstacles in their paths and lead fulfilling adult lives just like my mom’s students.
Mapping Soulville, AfroBattles, and Sit are three examples of scores from the “SAY IT LOUD!” series. Because my desire is for people to do the scores not just look at the documentation of themI present them primarily via a digital Educator’s Guide and public performances. Public performances are usually accompanied by xeroxed paper programs that include a typed version of the score, information on the overall “SAY IT LOUD!” series, and a link to the digital Educator’s Guide.
CV
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2014
Take Michelle to Work: Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, Brooklyn, NY.
2012
Diva Dutch for Derrick Adams’ The Channel. Brooklyn Academy of Music. Brooklyn, NY
2011
How to Listen To Lil Wayne (for Nia, Nya, and Kamaria) for Clifford Owens: Anthology. MoMA PS1, New York, NY.
The Top 4 Reasons the Democrats Lost the Election (Steve Harvey Style) for Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet: Steffani Jemison and Friends. New Museum. New York, NY.
2010
Diva Dutch for Derrick Adams’ Go Stand Next To the Mountain. The Kitchen. New York
NY SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2014
“Learn / Unlearn” vs. “I Heart Cops.” Prelude NYC. Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The CUNY Graduate Center. New York, NY. (Upcoming performance in October, 2014.)
Malcolm X Butterfly Project: Public Project in collaboration with Crispus Attucks Elementary School. Brooklyn, NY.
2011-2014
Brer Rabbit Day: Freebrook Spaces, Breadstuy. Brooklyn, NY
Sit [Interpretations #1-6]: Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY, BedStuy Alive! Brooklyn, NY; Borough of Manhattan Community College. New York, NY 2013.
Mapping Soulville Remix #2 as part of the Creative Time Summit’s Summit Sunday. New York, NY.
2013
Lucy. DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY.
Lemonade for Letters. as part of the Stoop Series at Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
Stand up! BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2011-2013
National Anthem [Interpretations #1-2]: BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Fulton Art Fair. Brooklyn, NY; Harlem Textile Works. Harlem, NY (with Alicia Hall Moran, and Sharina Sharpe).
2012
Soulville Census: Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY.
2011-2012
AfroBattles [Interpretations #1-6]: Bedstuy Alive!, SoLA Soiree, Brooklyn, NY.
2011
The Top 10 Reasons I Hate Black History Month: Vent Festival. Brooklyn, NY.
Brer Rabbit Day: Breadstuy. Brooklyn, NY.
BedStuy, I Love: BESSA Studio Strut, Brooklyn, NY.
Happy Black President’s Day Nina Simone: Harlem Textile Works. Harlem, NY.
2008-2013
Diva Dutch [Interpretations #1-23]: BRIC House. Brooklyn, NY; Shear Madness Gallery. Downstreet Art Festival, North Adams, MA; Come Out and Play. Times Square, NY; Corridor Gallery. Brooklyn, NY; The Kitchen. New York, NY; Project Row Houses, Round 31. Houston, TX; Tennessee State University. Nashville, TN; Primordial Punk Debutante Ball. Williamsburg, NY; The Gallery at Harriet’s. Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. Brooklyn, NY ;Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY; Public spaces in Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY, Brixton, United Kingdom, and Barbès-Rochechouart, France; Figment Festival. New York, NY.
2010
Bedstuy Obama Skirters 12×12. Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY.
2009-2010
From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand (aka The Obama Skirt Project). Various locations over 365 days including Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY; Project Row Houses, Houston, TX; Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Chicago, IL.
2009.
30 Days Without a Comb. Various locations over 30 days including Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2014. Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond. Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY. (Upcoming in October, 2014.)
2013
Moving Murals: culture, history + video. As part Shani Peters’ Deep Space program at MoCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit)
Give and Take: The Currency of Culture. CFAC Gallery. Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY
Group Therapy: Aesthetics and Politics. DUMBO Galleries. Brooklyn, NY.
Cultural Fluency. BRIC Rotunda Gallery. Brooklyn, NY.
Hirsuite. Morean Arts Center. St Petersburg, FL.
African Obama Fabrics & the Story Skirt Project. Baron Art Gallery. Oberlin College. Oberlin, OH.
2012
The 2012 Black Presidents Day Exhibition. Outdoor exhibition in 15 storefronts. Brooklyn, NY.
Uncle Remus Redux: Contemporary Visions of How Time Goes by Turns. Greene Council on the Arts Catskill Gallery. Catskill, NY.
2011
Curate NYC. Selected for three online exhibitions by curators Danielle Burns (Houston Museum of African American Culture), Jacqui Woods and Che Baraka (Skylight Gallery), and Michael Bogues (Abeng Productions Ltd) as well as one physical exhibition at Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY.
A Social Geography of Hair. Shear Madness Gallery. Downstreet Art Festival, North Adams, MA
Garments of the Obama Skirt Project: Harlem Textile Works. New York, NY.
2010
The Obama Skirt Project: 6 to 8 Months (Kara Walker’s artists’ space). New York, NY
2009
30 Days Without a Comb and The Bad Air Smelled of Roses. (Two person exhibition with Carl Pope.) Hiram Van Gordon Gallery at Tennessee State University. Nashville, TN.
From Africa to America: Visual Reflections on the African Diaspora. Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery, Iona College Council on the Arts. New Rochelle, NY.
2007
The Black Madonna. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Birmingham, AL; The Rosa Parks Museum. Montgomery, AL.
The View From Here. Skylight Gallery. Brooklyn, NY.
2006-2007.
Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood. Brooklyn Public Library. Central branch. Brooklyn, NY. Grandspace. Brooklyn, NY.
AWARDS:
2014
Fireworks Residency Award in collaboration with Greg Tate and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber. BRIC. Brooklyn, NY. (June 2014 – January 2015.)
2013.
The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Public Artist in Residence for BedStuy (Brooklyn, NY).
People’s Choice Award for the video of Top 10 Reasons I Hate Black History Month. The People’s Laundromat Theater Project. Harlem, NY
2009-2014
Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs via the Brooklyn Arts Council’s Regrant Program for Diva Dutch (2009), Story Skirts (2012), Brer Rabbit Day (2013 and 2014).
2012
Individual Artist Tier of the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program to produce content for an educators guide to SAY IT LOUD!: Performance Art Scores for the Young, Gifted, and Fabulous.
NOTABLE PRESS
Interview for News 12 on Take Michelle to Work. 2014.
New Kids on the Block: “Mapping Soulville” with Aisha Cousins. Art: 21 blog. May 13, 2013.
Prêt-À-Poundo: Mothers & Daughters Share African Political Fabrics. OkayAfrica.com,
May 12, 2013. Cultural Fluency: Intersections of Art and Urbanism. UrbanOmnibus.com. April 19, 2013.
Easter Re-Imagined and According to Br’er Rabbit. BedStuy Patch. AOL.com news site. March 28, 2013.
Skirting the Issue. BedStuy Patch. AOL.com news site. April 9, 2012.
Interview for MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art) TV on the Obama Skirt Project. 2011.
Divas Dance on Hair. New York Daily News. September 1, 2009 (Two page photo essay on performance score interpretations at Corridor Gallery).
In the Studio. Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine. Spring 2009.
Voice Choice. Village Voice online. August 15, 2008. Cover story. Our Times Press. June 26, 2008.
An Exhibition Notable for What’s Not There. New York Times. February 18, 2008 (Review of Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood).
MEMBERSHIPS
2012 – Present
tART Collective
EDUCATION
2011. NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Artist as Entrepreneur Bootcamp
2008 – 2012. Private studies in performance art including Fluxus concerts with Ben Vautier and Geoff Hendricks.
2000. B.A. In Studio Art with coursework in Black Studies and Sociology. Oberlin College, Oberlin OH.
1996. Docent training for Africa: The Art of A Continent under Isolde Brielmaier. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, NY